NFL Week 5 Thoughts – Inside The Wheelhouse

Let’s take a look back at some of the things that stood out from Week 4 in the National Football League!

– How warm is that hot seat in Philly right now? The self proclaimed “dream team” now falls to 1-4 on the season and the Eagles are one more straight loss away from crisis time in Philadelphia to hit. If the Eagles lose three more games at all for the rest of the season, making a grand total of seven losses, they will need a miracle to then make the playoffs. Nobody saw this team performance the way they have so far this season.

– The Buffalo Bills are the most surprising 4-1 team in the NFL and had they played well against a not so good Bengals team last week they would be one of the surprising unbeatens. That is not the case and the Bills are continuing to poise themselves for a playoff run. I wonder how much longer Cinderella’s slipper is on the foot of the team in Buffalo.

– I could have sworn I saw the Colts winning on Sunday and in grand fashion, only to lose to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 5. Looks like they on the “suck for Luck” train.

– At one point Adrian Peterson was on pace for 12 rushing touchdowns on Sunday as he scored three rushing TDs all in the first quarter against the Arizona Cardinals. The Vikings return to glory with their first win of the season over a really bad Arizona team.

– How bad of a trade is that Philadelphia sending Kevin Kolb to Arizona deal now? Wow Kolb continues to look like he just doesn’t have it.

– The Giants have the greatest of opportunities to pull away even further in the NFC East this week with an easy game against the Seahawks and fail to do so. “Big Blue” makes too many mistakes in this one costing them a sure-win game that could have kept them in line with the Redskins heading into Week 6. Tough loss for the Giants as I wonder if this is the beginning of their slide this season.

– Ben Roethlisberger’s foot looked completely fine in Week 5 as he threw for 5 Touchdown passes en-route to a big victory over Tennessee on Sunday. I guess we were a little too early to the “demise of the Steelers” party we were throwing.

– Tennessee could have made this a statement game by proving that they are a team to look out for this season but they fail to do such in Week 5. Maybe the loss of Kenny Britt and the lack of dominance from Chris Johnson continue to truly affect the way the offense plays and that what we saw the first four weeks may have just been some sort of a mirage of a football team.

– It’s official. The Carolina Panthers are that pesky last place team nobody wants to play in the NFL as they almost beat the Saints in Week 5. They truly are an impressive team and something to look out for in a couple of years. I am truly shocked by Cam Newton’s success thus far.

– With this win on Sunday, the New Orleans Saints now join Green Bay and San Francisco as teams starting to pull away from the rest of the NFC pack. Not shocked by this one at all.

– Most surprising 3-2 team in Football right now? The Cincinnati Bengals of course! I don’t know how they keep doing it, but they do. I’ll be interested how they play against the rest of their division rivals. At least they have something to work off of for their future.

– Once again, my apologies for predicting the demise of Maurice Jones-Drew this season. He has been a top 3 rusher all this season so far and has been very durable. I like what’s cooking in Jacksonville right now with Blaine Gabbert at the helm. They are still a ways off but they are getting their in putting the right pieces to their team.

– Oakland, coming off of the sudden loss of their iconic owner Al Davis, shocks the Texans in their house to improve to 3-2 on the season. This Raiders team isn’t that far behind in the AFC West standings right now and are starting to show me that they very well could be playoff bound this season.

– Houston continues to play like Houston, inconsistent. This is a team that could easily slide into a First Round bye like I have said before in these blogs but they continue to somehow find a way not too. They are still playoff bound with the division they are in, but they need to show that they are a force in the AFC South in the next couple of weeks of the Texans will be the AFC’s version of the 2010 NFC West.

– Um, I don’t know if you realize this, but the San Francisco 49ers are back. They put a whoopin’ on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that is pretty good, and do it in decisive fashion winning by 45 points. Talk about the surprise team of the NFL right now. Watch out NFC rivals, this may be a team you will have to deal with in the playoffs this season.

– San Diego wins one against Denver to improve to 4-1. Similar to the Houston Texans, they are a team that can easily slide into a first round bye if they play like this against their division rivals week-after-week. The Chargers may start feeling the pressure of teams like the Raiders though as they are not too far done their necks. I’ll be interested to see how San Diego plays in some of their upcoming matchups, most notably with the Packers.

– New England continues to show their AFC East dominance and that the loss they suffered to the Bills may just be a fluke after all. They beat their biggest rival at home and do it in a fashion that was quite surprising as Benjarvius Green-Ellis decides to return to the NFL as he explodes for 136 rushing yards on 27 carries on the way to score 2 rushing touchdowns, very impressive for a guy being written off by Stevan Ridley rumors.

– The Jets are now 2-3 on the season and starting to sweat it out a little more as they are not looking like the team we have seen on the field the last two seasons. They had a tough last three games against Oakland, Baltimore and New England, three games that didn’t see a single “W” in the column. The Jets need to bounce back in their next game or the alarm will sound very loudly in New York.

– A lot of people, including myself, saw the Atlanta Falcons as a perennial favorite to be an NFC representative in this year’s Super Bowl, now the Falcons will be lucky to just make the playoffs right now as a Sunday night loss against Green Bay now puts them at 2-3. They have struggled against decent NFC teams which is not good for a team being compared to the Rams of the early 2000’s with the show they’d put on the turf.

– The Green Bay Packers improve to 5-0 and Aaron Rodgers is looking like an early favorite for the MVP award as he has had a QB rating over 100+ each game this season. He looked calm, cool and collect in Atlanta on Sunday night despite being down by two touchdowns’ early on. This kid has confidence and confidence that will help the Packers for years to come, big win for Green Bay as the season continues on.

– The Detroit Lions now joins the Green Bay Packers as the final two unbeatens in the NFL. Which if you told me these two years ago I would have guessed that they were one of the two final teams not to win yet. What a turn around season for the Lions and their fans. I predicted last season on The Wheelhouse that the Packers & Lions will be a pretty good rivalry soon and it appears I will be right on this one.

– After another loss for the Bears you have to begin to wonder…who will be out of Chicago first, Lovie Smith or Jay Cutler? Think about it, I feel like that is a question that will be asked during the off-season.

Eric is the owner and editor-in-chief of the Camel Clutch Blog. Eric has worked in the pro wrestling industry since 1995 as a ring announcer in ECW and a commentator/host on television, PPV, and home video. Eric also hosted Pro Wrestling Radio on terrestrial radio from 1998-2009. Check out some of Eric's work on his IMDB bio and Wikipedia. Eric has an MBA from Temple University's Fox School of Business.

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